Hi! I tried to ping my local friends, one has dial-up, one has DSL. My comp can't ping their WAN IPs (100% packet loss), but theirs can ping my WAN IP (0% loss). I have a router shared by 3 computers, and weirdly all 3 computers share the same WAN IP (should I change that and if so, how?). No firewalls are enabled except for Norton Internet Security, but before I used a router (when I had dial-up), this firewall didn't prevent me from pinging my friends so I assume it isn't a firewall issue. My router firewall says "off" as well. I disabled TCP/IP filtering...ummm my "IP routing" is disabled on all 3 comps. Obviously I don't know much about anything. Is there any info I can give from ipconfig /all or anything to help someone understand the issue better? Thanks! Joe

Also I forgot to mention that there is a 3rd friend using DSL who I was able to ping successfully, and I think he was able to ping me too. Joe

You must understand that ping is next to a totally useless tool. If one can ping at least one way it PROVES that the connection is working both ways. You don't need to ping from both ends. Many things can delay or stop pings. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

Hmmm...I've been trying to connect to them through a TCP/IP game of Age of Empires 2, and ever since I got DSL we couldn't connect through TCP/IP anymore--except for my one friend. Useless tool eh. I thought articles on the Internet stress to use it. It's consistent that my friends can ping me but my comp can't ping theirs, doesn't that say something? Joe

If nothing changed on your friends side, and your certain your friends WAN IP addresses are the same, then it's probably Norton Internet Security on your end. NIS controls both outgoing network traffic as well as incoming. Even though it worked before, your network topology changed when you got the DSL subscription with an Internet router and NIS creates rules based on your topology. You should check your NIS rules to make sure it is allowing ICMP (PING) to be sent out from your computer. NIS is a very buggy program that experianced techs find causes more problems than it helps. If you have an Internet router, it's a good enough firewall for your purposes, so I'd recommend uninstalling NIS and using something like AVG Free for your antivirus. You'll find your computer performance will go up dramatically. Also, PING is a very useful tool. Last, yes it's normal for all your computers to have the same WAN IP if you are using an Internet router. Your Internet router acts as a "web proxy" so that your computers can share the 1 Internet connection at the same time. Your computers get what are called internale/private IP addresses, usually in the form of 192.168.x.x, which are not reachable from the outside unless you allow certaing incoming ports.... but one step at a time here.

Wow that sounds like excellent advice! Thanks a lot Analyst I am going to try that stuff when I get home! You sound like you know your stuff, good for you!! Joe

It seems as if you and your friends are not on a WAN. Have you verified their IP addresses? Perhaps they are using Private IPs as opposed to Public. Life's more painless for the brainless.